ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE AND MUSEUM OF MEDZAMOR

For lovers of old stones and archaeology enthusiasts, we would advise you to head southwest from the village and lake of Aknalitch, where the Medzamor hill rises, a major archaeological site in Armenia once occupied by a city. Excavations, begun in 1956, have revealed this site as one of the most important sites of the Armenian Bronze Age. The findings, partly exhibited at the Historical Museum of Armenia in Yerevan, established that the site was occupied from ^{IVe millénaire} to the late Middle Ages. The remains of a citadel as well as a vast necropolis bear witness to this, among which a museum has been set up whose collection is constantly being enriched as discoveries are made. In front of the museum stands a vichapakar, or dragon stone, a lapidary and totemic structure representing an aquatic deity whose ancestors of the Armenians had dotted their mountains long before the khatchkars, of which they may have been the precursors. In a room in the basement of the museum, one can admire gold jewellery and other precious materials, among the oldest found in Armenian territory. The objects on display on the upper floor of the museum reflect the richness of this civilization, which was in contact with other ancient civilizations, as shown by an Egyptian seal and a reconstructed tomb or sarcophagus. Archaeologists from all over the world are interested in this site, which is far from having delivered all its treasures.